Software Contractors' Guild
Local Chapters

DRAFT - 11/30/97

Comments regarding this draft are welcome.

The Need:

The Guild has grown to the point that it is time to expand to local chapters. The objective is to spread the workload and to do a better job of addressing the needs of Software Contractors at a more local level.

The need is particularly great for members that are outside the USA. The Guild is currently USA oriented. Even though an attempt is made to include other areas the format is not entirely international. The payment of dues in US dollars is nearly impossible for most members outside the USA. Also the Client and Agent lists are meaningless to them unless they want to market themselves in the USA. Even the FAQ sections describing such things as W2 and 1099 contractors is not relevant.

What is needed are local chapters in various countries or regions where there is a concentration of Guild members.

What is a Chapter?

A chapter is made up of a group of members in a country or region that have their own section of the Guild's web page. Each chapter would have their own members and maintain sections similar to that of today's Guild home page. Guild members that want to market in more than one area can join one chapter and then "cross register" in other guild chapters without having to pay additional dues.

The chapter's administrative organization would be determined by the local chapter. Each would have its own charter. One person would be chosen by the group to represent the chapter. This person will be chosen by whatever means the chapter's charter dictates such as by the chapter's member vote or by being first to volunteer. When starting a chapter, the organizer would be the representative until the chapter was large enough to establish a charter.

This person would be responsible for maintenance of the Chapter's section of the Guild's web site either by performing the maintenance personally or by delegating the work to other members in the chapter.

This person must have the following minimum qualifications:

Must be a Software Contractor with "significant" experience. The objective here is to have someone that knows firsthand how contracting works in the Chapter's country or region.
Must NOT be a recruiter, agent, job placement consultant, or whatever the "Head-Hunters" want to call themselves. This would be a conflict of interest.
Must be able to be conversant in HTML and internet tools (FTP, email, Netscape, etc).
Must be able to converse in English (via email) with the Guild's Webmaster to address any coordination or web site integration issues. ("Clear" English is not required...just enough to communicate).

The Objectives

The objective of a chapter would be to focus on the software contracting needs and styles of the country or region in which the chapter resides.

Areas that can be addressed are:

Provide a place for member contractors to post their resumes to advertise the services they provide and help them promote their contracting business within the Chapter's area.
Provide Client lists, Agent lists, contacts, and Web page references that are relative to the chapter that are to be used as a resource for contractors to locate work within the chapter's country or region.
Provide a means to promote software contracting and disseminate information relative to software contracting within the chapter's area. This would include information on how to get started as a software contractor in the chapter's country or region and topics such as how to run the business; taxes, insurance, and licenses. (However, care must be taken to insure that the chapter does NOT represent itself as an authority to offer legal or accounting advice.)
Provide a calendar of local events that would be of interest to software contractors within the chapter's area. These can be educational, vocational, or social as long as they have something to do with software contracting.
Provide contractor list, search facilities, and skill set lists containing contractors that wish to market themselves in the chapter's area. The objectives of such lists are to provide an easy way for clients (and also agents) to locate the best qualified contractor from among our members. In short, to make the Software Contractors' Guild "The" place for clients to go to locate the best talent.

One of the most important aspects of this is that we must maintain a high quality of content. If 80% of the resumes are outdated or incomplete then the Guild will not be usable to clients.

The Chapter's section of the Guild's web site must be professional looking and in good taste. Obviously anything obscene or illegal will not be tolerated.

The ground rule is that the Software Contractors' Guild must NOT act as a contract agent or a placement firm. The Guild and all of its chapters are to represent the member contractors, not the agents or clients. The Guild is not to perform contract agent services such as applicant screening and certification, immigration sponsorship, bill collection, or payroll services.

The Software Contractors' Guild and all of its chapters should NOT be allowed to charge any fee for access to resumes or charge any type of finders fees to clients that hire contractors from resumes found in the Guild.

It is be permissible to charge a small fee for membership dues and charge advertising fees for banner spaces within the Guild's web site. If a chapter chooses to post job notices, it is permissible to charge a small fee for the posting of the notice. This may be needed to control the volume of job notice submittals. There is a fine line here that we must not cross to avoid appearing in conflict of interest. We can advertise but not engage in job placement.

The primary goal of the Guild is to make it easier for all contractors and Clients to get together...with or without contract agents. By so doing those of us that are active in a Software Contractors' Guild Chapter expand our own chances of getting the best contracts (besides it looks good on our resume too).

What's involved

There is some work involved. The chapter would be responsible to do the following:

Maintain the chapter's section of the Guild's web site. There would be considerable freedom as to what the chapter's pages would contain as long as it retained the basic objectives.
Collect the dues from members in the chapter. This means that the chapter must set up an address where checks could be sent. They may also accept credit cards if they want to set up (and pay for) such facilities. The invoices are automatically sent by email from the Guild's CGI programs.
Answer email related to the chapter. The Guild overall gets about 20 emails per day regarding the entire site so a chapter should not get very many. However, all email should be read and responded to within a day or two. The bulk of the entry of new members and resume updates are handled automatically by the Guild's CGI programs.
(Optional) Develop a formal charter. Until the chapter is large enough to need a charter, the organizer of the chapter may determine the format and administration.
(Optional) Hold local chapter meetings and socials.
(Optional) Publish a newsletter.

Overall it should not take much time on a daily bases to maintain a chapter. If the chapter gets large enough to need more time than the chapter's representative has available, then delegate. But, once a chapter is started please be willing to stay with it or be responsible enough to turn it over to someone that has the time to keep it going.

Money

As with most worthwhile things, it cost money to operate the Software Contractors' Guild.

Web site hosting cost which include the web space on a host with multiple T1 connections, and the cost of domain name registration. Currently the costs are quite reasonable. As the Guild grows, more space will be required so the fees are expected to grow somewhat.
Labor. It takes about 2 hours per day on the average to maintain the web site. The current revenues do not cover the labor so almost all of the time is donated.
Advertising. Currently we do not have sufficient funds to place ads in major magazines. This should be a high priority as more funds become available. The objective is to let Clients know we are here. The agents have found us but not as many Clients.

There are several ways that the Guild and its chapters can generate revenue.

Collection of dues. The current dues are very low. Some say its very undervalued and we should raise the dues. Others just don't pay which implies that its not worth paying for. There is no doubt that if we did not require dues we would get many more members. However, the quality of the database may suffer because members that pay for the use of the Guild tend to put more effort into maintaining their information. A solid database of quality resumes will attract more clients than thousands of dead resumes.

One solution is to offer a two-tiered membership with the lower level membership free. See the HTML Guild's approach. These are things that can be discussed.

Sell banner ad space to clients and contract agents. There are no current estimates as to how much revenue this might generate. This is objectionable to some members. The ads, if used, must not dominate the page.
Post job listings and charge a small fee for each posting. To do this without requiring large amounts of labor to maintain it, we need some additional CGI programs. We have no estimate as to the revenue this will generate or the cost in additional web space this will require.
Sell the mailing list. No one likes junk mail but there are a lot of people selling interesting products that would like to send email to a list that they know are all software developers and they would pay good money for it. The head-hunters would love this as well. However, before we could do this we would have to allow members the option of NOT being on the list.
Sell ads in chapter news letters. Here is one that is totally up to the chapter to develop.

The local chapter collects revenues from the various sources that are generated as a result of the local chapter's web pages and from dues collected from the members in that chapter.

Each Chapter pays The Software Contractors' Guild Webmaster 10% of the total collections as a franchise for use of the Software Contractors' Guild name and association with the Guild's web page. The Webmaster will provide the web site facilities and the coordination between chapters in an attempt to maintain some consistency. With this comes the use of the CGI programs that run the Guild's web site. The CGI programs are maintained by the Webmaster.

An additional yet-to-be-determined amount from each chapter will be placed in a combined advertisement fund to be used to advertise the Guild in various magazines targeted at Clients. The use of this fund will be coordinated with the chapters.

The remainder of the funds are to be retained by each chapter and used for local advertisement, a big party, compensation to chapter representative, or whatever is consistent with the chapter's charter.

Risk Factors

There are some risks involved with starting chapters. We may need to collectively develop rules that would help avoid the potential risks.

We could get sued by an agent. The Guild, including all of its chapters, must be extremely careful to treat all agents the same, without discrimination. For example, we must not try to play policeman and punish or blacklist unethical contract agents (even if they deserve it). If the Guild should be sued for any reason we would not have the funds to defend ourselves in legal court. Remember, they do not have to have a valid case to sue and require us to defend ourselves. It would shut down the Guild and all of its chapters.
malicious gossip. It is possible that someone (member or non-member) will feel that they were not treated fairly by the Guild or one of its chapters and start to bad-mouth the Guild in the newsgroups. Software contracting is a small world and news gets around fast. It is very difficult to defend against such things. The Guild exist and is successful because of the benefit it provides its members by being a part of a reputable organization. If it became a disadvantage to be associated with the Guild, the Guild would no longer exist. So it is extremely important to treat everyone fairly and offer as much latitude as possible.
Trade law infringement. This is not likely but it is possible that the Guild may unknowingly break some trade law in a country in which a local chapter is operating. We must be diligent to be sure that we are honest and legal in every aspect. For example, Titles and trademarks (or service marks) must not infringe on anyone's territory. Even the icons we use cannot be "stolen" from the web unless we know it is not copyrighted.
Takeovers. The objective is that the Guild remain pure to the goal of representing the individual contractor. By its very nature that means that we will not be representing members with deep pockets. In the quest for obtaining funds to operate a chapter it is tempting to let the interest of big money to creep in and dilute the Guild's image. There is nothing wrong with taking their money but we must not let the interest of those providing the funds to dominate or control what is offered on the Guild's pages or any of the chapter's pages. Of all of the risks, this is the one that will be the hardest to guard against.

Facilities Available

The Guild's web site is currently running with the Apache web server on a BSD Unix platform using web hosting facilities rented from metro2000.net in Manchester New Hampshire

The Guild Webmaster maintains a set of CGI programs written in C, which are owned by Keeney Software Inc. The programs were ported from Windows NT so they could also run on an NT platform if the Guild needed to move again.

These CGI programs automate the entry and update of the member's resume and profile information. The programs maintain a database of member data. From this data and a set of templates, it generates the dynamic html pages for the information profile page and the various menus. Each time a user updates the database it will recreate the html pages affected by the change.

The Software Contractor's Guild home page and associated top level pages are maintained by the Guilds Webmaster. From this central home page there will be links to each of the chapter's main page.

Each Chapter will have its own home page and associated pages, a complete set of templates for the CGI programs, and their own database of members. Each chapter will have their own disk space, telnet and FTP access. This may reside on the same machine as the rest of the Guild but if they choose, the chapter's section of the web site could be physically located anywhere.

The domain name for a chapter can be subordinate to that of the Guild's. For example: The "French Speaking Chapter" would be "http://www.fr.scguild.com". Washington DC metro area would be "http://www.dc.scguild.com".

The chapter representative would FTP to the Guild's site to access the chapters pages. Using these tools the chapter can control the format and content of their pages of the web site and the layout of the html pages generated by the CGI programs. Documentation and assistance on how to use the CGI programs will be provided by the Guild's Webmaster.

To answer any questions about how this will work, send email to the Guild's Webmaster, David Keeney at admin@scguild.com

Software Contractors' Guild Local Chapters